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Plans to mine gold in Scottish national park face opposition

All that glitters isn’t… well, you know. Some of it is babbling brooks and lush rolling hills adorned with blossoming heather; or sparkling lakes populated by picturesque islands of greenery. Can’t you just hear the bagpipes’ mournful drone?

Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park is located on the boundary between the Scottish Highlands and the lowlands of Central Scotland. It contains the UK’s largest lake – Loch Lomond – which in turn contains the largest freshwater island in the British Isles.

Increasing international demand for gold is placing some of this national treasure at risk from an Australian-owned mining firm.

With gold prices soaring, the mining company Scotgold wants to dig out 700kg of gold and 17 tonnes of silver a year over the next decade from an unworked mine called Cononish, which sits near Tyndrum, just inside the north-eastern boundary of the national park.

Though local government is behind Scotgold’s proposals to mine in Loch Lomond Park, conservationists, countryside groups – and now the park’s director of planning, Gordon Watson – are opposed.

Watson believes the environmental damage would be ‘acute’ and ‘significant’ while the economic gains of the mine would be temporary and marginal in the long term.

Mr Watson also said the proposal went against the aims of the National Park designation within the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000, which says where there is conflict the aims of conservation must be paramount.

Scotgold’s director argues that the mine would be temporary, be of significant economic benefit to the area and that its structures would fit well into the natural landscape.

Greenfudge editor and London-based writer Graham Land grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, where he was part of the local hardcore punk scene, playing in several bands. Through this musical movement he became involved in grass roots interests such as anti-racist activism, animal rights and Ecology. In 2000 he relocated to Europe, eventually earning an MA from Malmö University in Sweden. He has also lived in Japan, Ireland, Portugal and Greece.

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